RNS Sessions: Ylva Skog - 'They Call Her Love' with Chloe Van Soeterstede
Royal Northern Sinfonia perform Ylva Skog‘s ‘They Call Her Love’, conducted by Chloe Van Soeterstede.
Performed live by Royal Northern Sinfonia with conductor Chloe Van Soeterstede on Friday 6 November 2020 at Sage Gateshead.
About the music
Swedish composer Ylva Skog (b. 1963) intuitively blends and fuses musical styles, drawing inspiration from an eclectic range of sources including fine art and literature. It has been said that Skog stand with one leg in the tradition of Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók, and the other in jazz, rock and Latin American music.
It’s clear in Skog’s piece that she wants to break the structure, to disturb something – you can hear this at the start of the piece with the irregular patterns in the cello section. But she also creates a much smoother, floaty atmosphere through the use of harmonic in her writing.
She describes how the title, ‘They Call Her Love’, came from a memory of watching a science programme about a research centre in Japan where chimpanzees learned to communicate with humans. The programme told the story of one female named Ai, who became friends with the researcher. Ai means dearest, or love.